Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Building Sustainable Communities
Eben Fodor's 12 Myths about Urban Growth
by Donella H. Meadows
We need to bring in business to bring down taxes. This development will give us jobs.
Environmental protection will hurt the economy. Growth is good for us.
If we've heard those arguments once, we've heard them a thousand times, stated with utmost certainty and without slightest evidence. That's because there is no evidence. Or rather, there is plenty of evidence, most of which disproves deeply held pro-growth beliefs.
Here is a short summary of some of the evidence. For more, see Eben Fodor's new book BETTER, NOT BIGGER which lists and debunks the following Twelve Big Myths of Growth.
Myth 1: Growth provides needed tax revenues. Check out the tax rates of cities larger than yours. There are a few exceptions but the general rule is: the larger the city, the higher the taxes. That's because development requires water, sewage treatment, road maintenance, police and fire protection, garbage pickup-a host of public services. Almost never do the new taxes cover the new costs. Fodor says: ''The bottom line on urban growth is that it rarely pays its own way.''


http://www.flsuspop.org/docs/12myths.htm\

By B.I.A. - Bull in Abundance

Truth vs. Myth about Growth 2

Myth 2: We have to grow to provide jobs. But there's no guarantee that new jobs will go to local folks. In fact they rarely do. If you compare the 25 fastest growing cities in the U.S. to the 25 slowest growing, you find no significant difference in unemployment rates. Says Fodor: ''Creating more local jobs ends up attracting more people, who require more jobs.'' And services.

http://www.flsuspop.org/docs/12myths.htm\

By B.I.A. - Bull in Abundance

Truth vs. Myth about Growth 3

Myth 3: We must stimulate and subsidize business growth to have good jobs. A ''good business climate'' is one with little regulation, low business taxes, and various public subsidies to business. A study of areas with good and bad business climates (as ranked by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the business press) showed that states with the best business ratings actually have lower growth in per capita incomes than those with the worst. Fodor: ''This surprising outcome may be due to the emphasis placed by good-business-climate states on investing resources in businesses rather than directly in people.

http://www.flsuspop.org/docs/12myths.htm\

By B.I.A. - Bull in Abundance

Truth vs. Myth about Growth 4

Myth 4: If we try to limit growth, housing prices will shoot up. Sounds logical, but it isn't so. A 1992 study of 14 California cities, half with strong growth controls, half with none, showed no difference in average housing prices. Some of the cities with strong growth controls had the most affordable housing, because they had active low-cost housing programs. Fodor says the important factor in housing affordability is not so much house cost as income level, so development that provides mainly low-paying retail jobs makes housing unaffordable.

http://www.flsuspop.org/docs/12myths.htm\

By B.I.A. - Bull in Abundance